The Victorian Chaise-Longue

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One of Millie’s visitors is a young man called Gilbert, and on seeing him Millie/Melanie feels an intense physical longing. It’s clear that Millie and Gilbert were secret lovers and his was the body that “painfully crushed” Millie’s.

The premise of this chilling story is a simple yet highly effective one. In the early 1950s, Melanie, a young mother recovering from tuberculosis, falls asleep, only to wake up in the body of her alter ego, Milly, some ninety years earlier. Antique chaises are treasured for their craftsmanship, beauty, and historical significance. They reflect the design trends and aesthetics of the specific time period in which they were created.Perhaps more interesting than satisfying, Marghanita Laski’s novella was written in the early 1950s. It opens in Laski’s present where Melanie, a new mother, is recovering from tuberculosis. She’s confined to her bedroom, looked after by her family doctor, husband Guy and household staff, so she’s overjoyed to be told she’s finally well enough to go downstairs, where she elects to rest on a piece of antique furniture, a Victorian chaise-longue. Once installed, she falls asleep but wakes up in 1864, still with TB but no longer married and no longer recognised as Melanie, she’s somehow switched places with Milly, a woman on the brink of death. The only constant is the chaise-longue. I have to admit I'm not sure that I fully understood what was supposed to be happening in this book. After thinking about it though, maybe that was the point - the reader isn't supposed to understand because Melanie herself doesn't understand. The book conveys a sense of confusion, panic and disorientation and I could really feel Melanie's helplessness as she lay on the chaise-longue, trapped in Milly's body, desperately trying to work out who she was and how she could escape.

At first the contrast between the two halves, one set in the then-present, one in Victorian times, seems stark: highlighted by the difference in tone, the opening section has a slightly pulpy, fluffy feel, while the section that follows is far more serious and sombre. Melanie lives in a meticulously-restored house in a newly-gentrified part of London, made possible by her husband’s successful career. She’s carefully tended to and, Laski makes it clear, considered deserving of attention because she’s young and pretty. Milly however, who’s resting on the same chaise-longue is confined to a stuffy sitting-room in a dreary, cluttered house, overseen by her stern sister who’s clearly obsessed with the ways in which Milly has somehow transgressed. However, as Laski’s narrative unfolds it’s evident Melanie and Milly are both in cages, it’s just that Melanie’s is more luxurious. La letteratura gotica mi è sempre piaciuta ma purtroppo non avevo mai sentito parlare di Marghanita Laski; dopo aver letto questo racconto sono convinta di voler addentrarmi di più nelle parole e libri dell'autrice, perchè Sulla chaise-longue mi ha molto intrigata.Having not seen her baby for seven months, Melanie asks, "Do you think he'll know me... do you think it's too late?" and "'When am I going to see him properly?'... She thumped the bed beside her where the baby should lie and had never lain." Duchesse brisée (Broken duchess in French): this word is used when the chaise longue is divided in two parts: the chair and a long footstool, or two chairs with a stool in between them. The origin of the name is unknown. The presence of an antique chaise adds a touch of luxury and refinement to a space. It offers a comfortable spot for relaxation, reading, or contemplation. An antique chaise serves as a versatile and stylish piece of furniture that elevates the aesthetic and creates a sense of timeless elegance in a living room, bedroom, or any other area of the home. This only adds to Melanie's confusion as she tries to make sense of her situation: the unknown, combined with eerie familiarity. "There came a new dread, or an old fear long known and endured." The plot is quite simple, at first - a 1950 young woman recovering from Tuberculosis falls asleep and wakes up 90 years earlier, in the body of a stranger. Sounds intriguing. Yes. It is also extremely unsettling, evoking feelings of imprisonment, doubt, and fear to name a few.

The main character Melanie was interesting. Of course the story mostly revolved around her and the rest of the characters just felt like actors in a play. I know everyone else wasn’t dealt with very in depth, but I liked that they just felt like a cast of characters in a play. I feel like that made it interesting. Wow. What a weird novella. I read this for the first time on June 15, 2001. A GR friend had told me that another book of hers was excellent (To Bed with Grand Music) so I thought I would read this again, and then read the book recommended to me. English journalist, radio panelist, and novelist: she also wrote literary biography, plays, and short stories.Sounds mysterious? Well, it isn't. It's just that the plot is one thing if you read it with the expectation that everything in the book happens just as it is described. If, however, you begin to doubt the narrator, you may start to wonder what is really going on.